Hospitals in Santa Clara County have been meeting daily to share information on hospital status and issues of concern, identify and address level-loading needs, and discuss vaccination strategies.
Hospitals are beginning vaccinations by appointment for their community members/patients who are eligible health care workers and are working closely with public health and the emergency operations center. Online scheduling began Jan. 11 at multiple county and hospital/health system locations for qualified health care workers. The number of weekly appointment slots is based on vaccine availability.
On Jan. 8, the Santa Cruz County health officer amended her Jan. 5 health order temporarily suspending certain elective surgeries and procedures at hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. The amended order requires all elective surgeries and surgical procedures to be categorized and deferred in accordance with the terms of the state public health order, regardless of whether the ICU bed availability requirements of the state order have been met.
On Jan. 7, the Santa Clara County health officer issued a new health order directing vaccination providers in the county to provide requested vaccine information on an ongoing basis to the health officer and requires — by Feb. 1 — all large health care systems to submit a comprehensive plan on how they intend to vaccinate their primary care patients. The plan must, at a minimum, include communication with all primary care patients about availability of vaccine and follow-up doses; planned vaccination sites; anticipated number and schedule of daily vaccine appointments; mechanisms to ensure equity considerations and reach harder-to-serve patient populations; and vaccination waste.